Biodiversity on site: Nestle UK and Ireland

Tuesday, June 14th, 2016

Nestle engaged local schools and employees and partnered with environmental NGOs to implement its wildflower planting project.

The planting was intended to encourage British butterflies including the large white, red admiral, small copper, wall brown and meadow brown. Photograph: Nestle

A direct link to the product: As a food producer, Nestle UK and Ireland understands its responsibility to develop its business in a way that promotes natural capital and in particular biodiversity. To this end, the company is working to “identify its reliance and potential impact on the nature around production sites in the UK”. Nestle is an active member of the Cambridge Natural Capital Leaders Platform, which brings together companies concerned about the environment.

Nestle’s idea to restore natural capital: According to the UK Wildlife Trust, wildflower meadows have declined in the UK by 97% since the 1930s, largely due to a rapidly expanding population and intensive agriculture. This in turn has had a dramatic impact on the insects that depend on them, such as butterflies and bees. Butterflies are considered to be an indicator of ecological health and this project aims to attract ten different varieties to its meadows.

Each project is managed according to a set of criteria that includes employee, community and external expert engagement, plant selection, and butterfly monitoring at each site. The projects are independently audited to ensure they are achieving their stated objectives. Open days and events have been planned to engage employees, communities and local schools. The project is already having positive biodiversity impacts: at Nestle Girvan on the West coast of Scotland, the butterfly count has increased by 150% since 2013 with a huge increase in ringlet, painted ladies and both small and large white butterflies.